Headphones with the Best Soundstage [2023 Review]

The ideal way to listen to music, podcasts, and audiobooks is with a pair of the best over-ear headphones. They provide excellent sound quality, optimum comfort, and a large soundstage, as well as a slew of other extras like wireless networking and active noise cancellation.

While earbuds are handy and frequently sound great, over-ear headphones are the way to go for anyone who is passionate about music and wants to extract as much detail as possible from their hi-res audio files.

Furthermore, we cannot talk about soundstage if you are not gonna pick over-ear headphones. We decided on the three best headphones with the best soundstage for the ones who are looking for one.

If you are interested in these models, keep reading our Headphones with the Best Soundstage review for more information below.

Our Top Pick: AKG Pro Audio K712 PRO

Features: The AKG K712 PRO has excellent sound quality for serious listening. They’re really comfortable headphones that come with a few more features than the K701 and K702.

However, they’re a little big and unwieldy for regular usage, just like the previous models. They also have an open-back design, which increases overall sound quality but leaks a lot and doesn’t prevent much noise, making them unsuitable for noisy commutes.

If you are looking for Headphones with the Best Soundstage, you should give this one a chance. From our perspective, AKG has created a mini-masterpiece. We really like this headphone, and it’s going to be our go-to reference headphone for the time being. She’s smooth, attractive, well-balanced, and ridiculously at ease.

You’ve got yourself a big winner when you combine that with an unpicked nature when it comes to amplification. This headphone is one of the greatest multi-media headphones we have seen recently.

This AKG headset can sound amazing with rock and reasonably bassy music, which we can’t believe we are saying. If you like the Hifman HE500 or HE400 but are put off by its tiring sound and weight, pick up one of these K712s or at the very least try one out.

Runner Up: HIFIMAN SUNDARA Over-Ear Full-Size Planar Magnetic HiFi Stereo Wired Headphones

Features: These headphones are completely improper for usage in public places because 1. everyone can hear what you’re listening to and 2. the noise of your surroundings makes it impossible to hear what you’re listening to.

However, for everything else, this is the perfect headphone with the soundstage. If you are looking for Headphones with the Best Soundstage, you should give this one a chance.

“Crisp” is the greatest adjective we can think of to describe how the Sundara sounds. It’s difficult to tell whether the Sundara’s ‘crispness’ is a symptom of its frequency response or a personality attribute of its planar magnetic driver.

After listening to some of HiFiman’s other planar magnetic offerings, we are guessing it’s a mix of the two. The bass is excellent. The Sundara appears to have substantially less sub-bass than the Focal Clear based on the graph above.

However, this is not the case subjectively. The Sundara appears to go much deeper than the Clear, almost as far as the HD 560S. The Sundara’s sub-bass has a weight to it that’s a lot of fun.

Best for Budget: Philips Audio Philips SHP9500 HiFi

Features: If you ask most headphone fans, the Phillips SHP9500 is one of the top contenders for a low-cost pair of audiophile-sounding headphones. The SHP9500 is well-known among audiophiles, and as a low-fi owner, they’re excellent headphones to try out as you get started in this pastime.

The Phillips SHP9500 has a good build quality for the price. They are primarily constructed of plastic, but they appear to be sturdy and can endure for several years with proper care.

Metal mesh casing with left and right-side markings, as well as the headband, add a wonderful touch and give it an almost industrial vibe. If you are looking for Headphones With the Best Soundstage, you should give this one a chance.

When the headband adjustment arms are adjusted, a click sound is heard. The hinges do not squeak or rattle, which indicates a well-constructed headset. If you value comfort above all else, and that means being able to wear a pair of headphones for hours on end without discomfort, the Phillips SHP9500 is the headphones for you.

They’re light and comfortable, and the earcups fit comfortably around the ears. The earpads are constructed of breathable cloth with a light pad. The open-back design of this headset considerably decreases the chance of their becoming hot.

Best Soundstage Headphones for Gaming

You’ll want a good pair of audiophile-level headphones if audio quality is your top priority. While the lack of active capabilities makes these headphones unsuitable for everyday usage, they’re ideal for fully immersing yourself in your music while relaxing at home.

They accurately reproduce sound and, in most cases, can generate a vast and open soundstage that simulates listening to music on tower speakers. They also look and feel well-made and comfy enough to allow you to fully enjoy your music without being reminded that you’re wearing headphones.

However, if you will be using your headphones for gaming purposes, you need to be on the lookout for different features. We included the three best soundstage headphones for gaming and gamers below.

Our Top Pick: Sennheiser Pro Audio HD 650 Open Back Professional Headphone

Features: The HD 650 headphones are quite accurate. The low and high ends aren’t amplified, but the low end is noticeably stretched compared to what we are used to with open headphones.

If you are looking for the Best Soundstage Headphones for Gaming, you should give this one a chance. Because of their outstanding frequency response and high-quality build, the Sennheiser HD 650 headphones are ideal for audiophiles and professional producers, but they may be too expensive for the typical customer.

Audiophiles and professional music producers will appreciate the Sennheiser HD 650 headphones. There’s no avoiding the fact that if you want to buy a pair of HD 650s, you must evaluate how specialized they are and how their performance can be underutilized or, at worse, utterly mismatched.

They spend the majority of their money on the construction of the drivers and the open-back design, and they value sound quality above all else.

They’re not cheap, but if you want flashy bells and whistles and extra functions like those found on consumer-grade headphones, you’ll have to search elsewhere. The Sennheiser HD 650 headphones produce a clear, open sound that is ideal for critical listening.

Runner Up: HyperX Cloud II – Gaming Headset

Features: The HyperX Cloud 2/Cloud II is a better-than-average gaming headset with balanced sound and a casual design that allows them to be used outside. They may easily pass as conventional headphones once the mic is removed, despite their unusual color scheme.

They’re well-made, durable, and comfy. They’re good for gaming and watching movies because of their wired construction and low latency. Their absence of noise cancellation, however, renders them unsuitable for commuting or travel.

If you are looking for the Best Soundstage Headphones for Gaming, you should give this one a chance.

The Cloud II headset is made up of two pieces: the headset and a USB sound card module. The headset is connected to a 3.5mm connector by a short cable that extends slightly over three feet.

The USB sound card comes with a two-times-longer cable that terminates in a USB plug. A braided fabric is used to protect and avoid tangling on both cables.

The Cloud II headset has the look and feel of a solid pair of headphones in its price range rather than a gaming headset. It’s well-crafted, appealing, and modest.

Best for Budget: EPOS Sennheiser GSP 300 Gaming Headset

Features: Sennheiser makes some of the greatest headphones on the market, but its gaming headsets are often disappointing.

They’re consistently good, but they’re often let down by one or two minor flaws, which usually revolve around a bonus feature or a less important design detail. The Sennheiser GSP 300 seeks to avoid all of that by providing only the essentials for less than $100.

If you are looking for the Best Soundstage Headphones for Gaming, you should give this one a chance.

The EPOS Sennheiser GSP 300 is a little bit confusing from a specific perspective. On the one hand, this is a pretty basic gaming headset: it has a split 3.5mm analog connection and so offers only the most basic features— it’s a pair of stereo headphones with a mic. While the function is straightforward, the appearance is everything else.

This headset is extremely light due to its plastic construction. The headband adjustable mechanism may appear clumsy, but it works, and when combined with the tilting headphone joints, it provides a really comfortable listening experience. The leather-covered headphone pads had no issue forming a seal around the ears.

Buyer’s Guide for Headphones with the Best Soundstage

The perceived position and size of the sound being reproduced is referred to as the soundstage. The soundstage can be generated during the recording process by experimenting with reverb and delay, as well as mid/side processing.

The purpose of speakers or headphones is to precisely reproduce a virtual soundscape. Let’s look at the features a good headphone with a quality soundstage should have.

What is a soundstage?

The soundstage, as formed by the headphones, determines the space and context of sound. That is, it determines the perceived size and placement of the sound field itself, whereas imaging determines the size and location of the objects inside the sound field.

In other words, soundstage refers to the spatial and localization cues that are not intrinsic to the audio content (music), which headphones must ‘create’ rather than reproduce. Imaging, on the other hand, refers to the audio content’s inherent localization and spatial clues.

The perfect stereo loudspeaker system in the ideal room serves as our benchmark for the optimal headphone soundstage. Although no such ideal configuration exists in reality, it gives a solid theoretical foundation for identifying the soundstage’s components.

The variations between loudspeakers and headphones in terms of localization and spatial features, i.e. soundstage, can be separated into three categories using this framework:

Room effects: Unlike headphones, where the music is played at or in your ears, loudspeakers play music in a room where the sound is impacted by reflections off the walls and other surfaces.

Angle and sound source: Loudspeakers are placed in front of the eardrum at a 30-degree angle, whereas headphones are placed at a 90-degree angle and are very close to the eardrum.

The pinna (outer ear), which is part of the HRTF (Head-Related Transfer Function), plays a critical function in assisting the human auditory system in determining the angle and source of the sound. Keep reading for the Headphones with the Best Soundstage.

Different pinna resonances become active due to the complicated and asymmetrical shape of the pinna, which varies vertically and horizontally depending on the location of the source.

These resonances introduce direction-specific patterns into the ear’s frequency response, which the auditory system recognizes for up/down and front/back localization.

Crosstalk: Because there is no separating barrier between the left and right speakers in a stereo loudspeaker arrangement, some sound from the left speaker gets to the right ear and vice versa.

However, due to the shadow cast by the head, the sound of the L driver does not reach the right ear when using headphones. Keep reading for the Headphones With the Best Soundstage.

Crosstalk serves to strengthen the phantom center and make the stereo picture more coherent in a stereo speaker configuration; in other words, it eliminates the hole in the center of the sound field that is a characteristic of headphone soundstage.

Why is soundstage important?

When wearing headphones, a decent audio soundstage is vital since it allows you to become fully involved in your music. For each combination of music and each type of music, each studio builds a visual stage. You’ll need a better soundstage to achieve the entire audio experience, which will allow you to fully visualize the music.

When you listen to a song with a better audio soundstage, you can hear a different version of the same song. Nothing changes, but instruments that were previously lost in the background cacophony can now be heard.

It’s more enjoyable! Especially nowadays, when getting to concerts is difficult. The more of that experience you can duplicate at home, the better!

What is headphone imaging?

This indicates how exact the soundstage’s location is; the higher the accuracy, the more localized the sound is, and the easier it is for your brain to comprehend the audio. Keep reading for the Headphones with the Best Soundstage.

When utilizing headphones or earbuds, a smaller audio soundstage provides more precision. Because a wide audio soundstage is more difficult to produce with headphones, the accuracy may be wrong when you use earphones with a wide soundstage.

Open-Back vs. Closed-Back Headphones

The main distinction between open-back and closed-back headphones is the soundstage. This is due to the fact that open headphones are not designed to suppress sound or ambient noise.

This makes the music you’re listening to sound like it’s coming from the headphones around your ears and not from the environment. Keep reading for the Headphones With the Best Soundstage.

The spaciousness of the sound is determined by the openness of the headphones, while sound leakage provides the listener with a delicate ambiance of the room.

The soundstage is created by the inside structure of the earcup using closed-back headphones. A manufacturer may experiment with the earcup’s design, such as adding non-resonant material to help absorb sound reflections.

Size

Your choice of headphones reflects both your personality and your budget. Some individuals buy different sorts for different purposes—one for working out and another for relaxing at home or joining a video conference, for example—but the distinctions are becoming increasingly blurred.

People are now wearing larger models that were once only intended for home usage while out for a walk or on the train, and others are always plugged into their earbuds, even when watching films on their laptops. Keep reading for the Headphones With the Best Soundstage.

Technically, all headphones are “portable,” but we use the phrase to refer to compact, lightweight types that can be tucked away in a pocket or purse when not in use. Some individuals prefer smaller, lighter headphones, but you may have to sacrifice sound quality for comfort.

The larger headphones that resemble earmuffs and have two ear cups joined by an adjustable headband are referred to as “home/studio style.” Some have carrying pouches and fold them for storage. This type is bigger, but it produces the best-sounding models in our tests.

Sound Quality

Headphones, like speakers, can highlight (or distort) various sections of the audio spectrum, and you may prefer one sound over another. If possible, try on headphones before making a purchase. If you buy something online, check the return policy to see if it can be returned or exchanged for a different model.

Design

When you’re at home, over-the-ear headphones are excellent, but they might get in the way when you’re on the go. Keep reading for the Headphones With the Best Soundstage.

Smaller, more portable devices may compromise some sound quality, but they are unquestionably convenient, and in-ear headphones are easier to use.

Consider headphones with active noise cancellation technology if you need some peace and quiet while working at home or in other locations.

Frequently Asked Questions: Headphones with the Best Soundstage Review

Conclusion: Headphones with the Best Soundstage [2023 Review]

In the end, you must pick if you want a more natural soundstage or the best hi-fi audio you can obtain. We’re not saying you can’t have both, but if you’ve read this review, you’ll know that there are significant variances in the audio soundstage offered by various brands of headphones.

Whether you’re looking for the best gaming headphones or earbuds, it’s important to understand that the type of headphones you buy, as well as whether it’s open or closed back, will have a significant impact on your listening experience.

You may always perform a soundstage headphones test to determine the audio quality of your headphones! We hope you liked our Headphones with the Best Soundstage review and it was helpful.